Store layout, zones and product placement

Where the main route runs and which table gets the front position both shape what a visit looks like. Layout and zones can be measured and read on your own floor plan, and each kind of store further down links to a page of its own.

How are store layout and zones measured?

Your floor plan is split into zones, and each zone gets its own visit count, dwell time and paths. Wi-Fi measures them across the whole floor, with no cameras and no app. Where an exact count in and out is needed, a small 3D sensor goes above the door. Finer detail, down to a single aisle or gondola end, is measured with sensors.

Each installation is checked against manual control measurements. Figures reach your dashboard the day after the visit, so you read a layout over whole periods and compare like with like.

Bumbee Labs is the company behind the only footfall method in Europe approved by a data protection authority.

Where does the floor work, and where is it dead?

Hot zones are the parts of the floor where visitors stop and look. Cold zones are the parts they cross quickly or never reach, such as a corner of a large floor or an aisle few visits pass through. Retail heatmaps draw both on the floor plan.

The route, the products or the zone’s position in the building can each explain a cold zone, so read it against the visits and dwell around it before moving anything. For the rear of a store and the area just inside the door, read the boomerang rate and the decompression zone.

Which displays, tables and campaign spots make people stop?

Dwell time at a campaign table, a feature wall or a display shows whether visitors stop there or walk on. People who only glance leave a short dwell and people who stop leave a longer one, which helps you give the prominent positions to the offers that need them.

To test a move, put the table or display in a zone that holds people and compare dwell before and after. On their own, the floor figures do not show whether a stop ends in a sale; that question goes to the till data.

Which layout questions come up first in each kind of store?

Each kind of store starts from its own floor question. The method is the same in all of them: split the floor into zones, read dwell and paths in each, and take the result back to the layout.

• Grocery stores look at which departments the shopping round leaves out and which campaign spots hold shoppers.
• Clothing stores look at where shoppers turn round, how the floor is shared between departments and whether an upper floor is reached.
• Flagship stores look at which tables, walls and displays visitors stop at, and how the whole floor works.
• DIY and hardware stores look for the dead corners of a big floor and the aisles most visits run through.
• Furniture stores look at how long visitors stay in each department and where they wait at the planning desk.
• Consumer electronics stores read dwell by department next to the till, where long stays with few purchases can show the shop working as a showroom.
• Sports stores look at which departments of a large floor hold visitors and which they walk past.
• Pharmacies tell the visit to the self-care area apart from the visit to the counter.
• Retail chains compare the same zones from store to store and use the comparison to choose which stores to refurbish.

How do you check that a layout change worked?

Measure the same zones the same way before and after the change, and compare like periods with like. Dwell and paths show whether a zone now holds visitors. A count at the door cannot show which zone gained or lost them after a refit, so measure the zones as well as the entrance.

A large Scandinavian retail chain found zones that never drew visitors, rebuilt or repurposed them, and checked the result with the same measurement. For more on how a route is designed and how shoppers respond, read about counterclockwise store layouts, which way shoppers turn and the Gruen effect.

How do we start measuring our floor?

Most stores can begin on the Wi-Fi network they already run. One or two extra access points can cover the entrance or a zone you want to follow, and a sensor at the door adds an exact count in and out where that matters. Book a demo and we will walk through your floor plan with you.